I have just learnt that the Enviromental Protection Agency have allowed a permit for cruise ships to dump unlimited amounts of untreatedgraywater only a mile from the US shoreline provided the cruise ship is going faster than 6 knots.

One has to ask the question ....is this something the american public think is accepable ?
Are you aware of this permit ?

Are you confident that this untreated graywater will not drift into your beaches & shoreline ?

It has been found ( so I've read ) that it would only cost just over $7 per passenger to treat this graywater.

Maybe Dave Beers or Lisa should be the first to reply to this as there is a danger it could drift into a political thread and I don't want to happen.However I think this is something of importance that needs airing.....if the graywater was treated first then I wouldn't be raising these concerns

For the rest of the story, prior to this ruling there were no regulations for commercial ships in this case. Virtually all vessels were exempt from the Clean Water Act. It is a regulation and not some sort of waiver.

For those wishing to have their eyes glaze over, you can read the details here. This is a new regulation and is actually being implemented to comply with a court order related the the EPA being sued by environmental groups.

I also note that virtually all of the ships previously exempted - and now subject to the new regulation - are foreign flagged.

In that case it's good the EPA are trying to make things a bit better although I do wonder why they chose a mile ....wonder why they didn't go for 2 miles.
Are you saying then... that until this ruling came along any ship could dump untreated graywater as little as half a mile away from the shore.
And I guess the reason cruise lines don't treat the greywater is that thay don't want additional expense.
Graywater isn't very nice stuff to dump in the sea.

I'm saying that unless there was a local regulation forbidding it they could discharge at the pier.

I do not know the methodology used in arriving at the 1 mile limit, but I have to assume there were acceptable reasons and tests performed as well as for having the ships at a minimum speed during the discharge. A great deal of mixing and dilution will occur. I am someone with experience in discharging effluents from ships. I am not alarmed by it. Despite the large laundry list of items that "can" be discharged, the fact is virtually all grey water is simply water from showers, tubs, sinks, and galleys. Cruise ships process raw sewage prior to discharge.

One of the tenets of my New Year's resolutions is to avoid any type of post that might be construed as being politically motivated. That being said, they should treat the grey water (period). Was not Royal Caribbean guilty of dumping oil in the ocean just 10 years ago?? The ironic part of this issue is that RCCL ship employees, during the time the illegal dumping was being carried out, wore buttons that said, "Save Our Waves." It is just a short time that grey water dumping will escalate into other substances.

Originally posted by drlivingston:
One of the tenets of my New Year's resolutions is to avoid any type of post that might be construed as being politically motivated.

Yes I saw the post you made and knew it was your sharp wit & humour but others could have mistaken it for a political post. I just laughed but well done for deleting it.

Back to the graywater...well Dave says he has experience of this sort of thing so I think we have to accept that graywater is something not to worry about ( unless of course the ships take shortcuts and don't follow procedures.)

Dwayne was gracious enough to save me from that post, Jack. He and Dave have been helping me pull my foot out of my mouth for over a year now. My goal is to be much more "on topic" this year and actually contribute to a thread rather than hijack it. (as Monty Python would say... "and there was much rejoicing.")